Re: digital / analogue

Consider a physical creation compared to a digital creation. The opposite is not necessarily analogue.

Or

Indeed a CD is analogue. If I heat it slowly, as it melts it can go through an infinite number of positions, thereby being analogue. If it moved through a finite number of stages between disc and puddle it would be digital.

digital / analogue

paypal

PayPal adoption has been slow because there are significant downsides for the trader. I work for a large organisation that considered paypal a couple of years ago, but their binding arbitration service for disputes and the ability to yoink back funds with no redress means it will probably never be considered again.

I wonder if Apple are planning for any liability in case of dispute/fraud/etc. or just off-loading to the card provider.....

Re: Which is why @Charles 9

To be fair, it's not just the 'Merkins. A cricket pitch is still one chain, crease to crease. Horse races are still measured in furlongs. And most importantly, beer still comes in pints, gallons, firkins, barrels etc. etc. Our 1 pence piece weighs 1/8 ounce, 2p weighs 1/4 ounce. And indeed, where do you think our former colonial cousins got their 'Imperial silliness'?

USB 8.0

Re: Serfdom? @DAM

This isn't really a bribe. It is closer to paying compensation for limiting their prospects of getting a new job in their chosen field. No more illegal than paying garden leave and prohibiting taking up employment with competitor for a set amount of time.

That's not right........

An article involving M$, embedded software that monitors preferences, history, location etc. and not a single black helicopter icon or "think of the children". Are the commentards on holiday or something?

If you know we're doing it, it's ok

There is actually legal precedent for this kind of asshat logic.

I worked in pubs and bars for many years, when I started it was illegal to knowingly serve anybody under 18 (with a couple of exceptions with a full meal). A few years ago they removed the "knowingly" bit putting all the onus the member of bar staff. Even if you are given fake ID, you can still get fined.

Now the police actually pick old looking 17-year-olds and send them into pubs to try and get served. The only reason this is not legally deemed entrapment, is because they write to you first and warn you they might do it. This judgement applies exactly the same principle.

facebook vs NSA & friends

Maybe the five eyes should start offering a "like" button and a few irritating instant message stickers. Then everyone would be happy to let them slurp all their personal data, web history and preferences etc. Must be a lot cheaper and easier than illegal surveillance, data cable tapping and all their nefarious shenanegans.

Re: The Point

An eloquent response deserving of retort.

Firstly " Oh, you're scared of ridicule? You'll grow up at some stage I'm sure and be more confident in your actions and your choices" I have stood by my actions even in the face of arrest, loosing jobs and partners over the years, but consider this example. When I was younger I worked for an escort agency, it simply meant I went to a few nice restaurants and business functions where the client deemed it worth the cost to have someone young and intelligent on their arm instead of fending off asshats all night because they turned up single. I did not sleep with any of them. Because of the common missconception, my wife occasionally calls me her gigolo to tease me. My current job is as a respected officer for a local government authority. If they read the nickname in text messages (and this is a genuine risk as I have a .gcsx email address) , the mere suggestion of accepting money for sex would result in enormous professional embarrassment and ridicule. Wishing to avoid this is not a sign of immaturity.

Moving on, I keep it secret from my kids that Santa doesn't exist. I keep it secret from my wife what I have bought her for valentines day. This is not a symptom of "broken society". Financial inequality is symptom. The fact that you are on this forum suggests you are in the top 5% of richest in the world. Give me all your personal and bank details and encourage your friends to do the same, I will take half of one pay check of everyone and drive to africa/suburban china/north korea/you name the deprived area and take supplies and money to redistribute that wealth to help "fix society" - still have the courage of your convictions? And that's before I start on the fact that you posted as anonymous coward (although as you suggest, is it really anonymous - should I just address you as coward?)

The missing word here is "intent"

Most laws around harassment, assault etc include an element of intent. Sometimes in level of punishment, sometimes in if the offence is committed. This buttwipe intended to cause distress, emotional & relational harm and financially gain by doing so. How he did it is less important than the intended result. Assault in the uk is defined as unwanted contact, maybe the definition of contact could be extended to include this scenario. Then his actions would be agrievated sexual assault ( agrievated by demand for money) 15 years at her majesty's country club, offenders register etc.

Re: Oh crap.

As soon as my 2 year old could reach the keyboard he started creating havoc on my home desktop. I turned on the PC one day to get the error message that "boot_mgr is missing". This struck me as odd as it was there the night before, oh well it was Vista so it may have got lost and/or corrupted somewhere. 'Found' a windows recovery disk and was surprised to be greeted with the report that everything was fine. After days of slowly going mental, I finally worked out that my little darling had hit the on button then flapped at the keyboard - and somehow fluked the sequence to re-program my bios so it was booting from the wrong hard drive.

I dread to think what he will destroy once he has a little education :)

Obligatory skynet allusion

"when we invent a machine capable of creating a machine smarter than itself, we have already lost the war" - does a swarm smater than the individual count? If the algorythm works with nanobots we can create the T-1000 prototype :)

Re: Virgin....Y U no fix it??

The slow motion effect could be due to the superhub. I downloaded a film, tried streaming it from PC to Xbox.

It's slow starting up, then every 13 minutes It pauses for 2 seconds - then runs at double speed for 4 seconds whilst it catches up.

USB connection from PC direct to xbox solved the problem.

Did same sequence streaming from mobile (Galaxy S2), same result.

SuperHub wireless is poor even when it does work properly. IP Flood detection is a pain in the ass, it doesn't proctect against anything and just cripples sharing across my own network. Port Forward and DHCP are a mess.

Re: Apply this logic to cars

@ Scarshapedstar

Not quite right. Samsung Touch-Wiz is violating the design patents by looking like iOS, not stock android.

Mind you, if they were that bloody similar looking - why did it take me a couple of minutes to find the settings icon, and navigate to the correct menu when I first used an iPhone. Surely if they were similar enough to create confusion, I would have been able to do it instantly. Glad I live in the UK, where our court told Apple to stop messing about.

Re: Fair trial?

if Dyson had sued Hoover or Electrolux for making devices that look like a vacuum cleaner - then it would be a valid comparison.

Besides, Apple effectively copied and improved on several features already on the market, and packaged them in one device. That is precisely what Samsung (and now several others have done). If Apple's case is valid, then every one from 2002 (Palm, Nokia, Samsung, Sony, LG et al) have an equally valid case against Apple for exactly the same nonsense.

Can I claim a design patent on the above paragraph? Nobody has put those words together in that order before.

2.4% is unfrandly?

These essential patents that Samsung are massively overcharging for...

Several articles around the web mention that Sammy already have licencing deals with intel etc for these patents. If the complaint from Apple is that Sammy are charging too much for it to be Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory - surely the total cost if everyone charged the same (50% of phone value as reported above) is irrelevant. The only thing that would make Unfair, Unreasonable or discriminating is if they charge Apple more than Intel (or whoever) to licence the same patent.

Re: And another fandroid pops up with a wildly over-simplified description of Apple's design patent

I'm pretty sure a design patent would include such things a geometry, proportions, look, texture and overall impression. Please correct me if I have miss-understood.

The geometry and proportions are nothing new as per the discussions above. The look is similar, but IMHO also pre-existing. The texture is noticeably different - Sorry Samsung, your phones feel cheaper. And the overall impression is different as decide in UK court that the galaxy tab appears "an almost insubstantial member of the same family" and does not have the same "understated design"

What all the legal wrangling comes down to is the worry that a potential apple customer might buy a samsung by mistake, and that is what any damages will be based on.

With your understanding of design patents (and the fact that your commenting here suggests your are reasonably tech-savvy) do you honestly think this is a significant risk.

Even my dear old mum who can no work the video recorder and puts a full stop after every word in text messages because she can't find the space button, said of my Galaxy S2 "It's not as shiny as that iphone but it looks much easier to hold" - Thus proving difference in look, feel and overall impression.

Even if Apple win this, and any subsequent appeal - Samsung will be able to go after Apple through court in a different territory (probably UK or mainland Europe) and win the money back.

The sad thing is the only winners are the lawyers, and on both side they have made some glaring errors and shouldn't command such ridiculous fees.

Re: Strange they didn't use Star Trek - the devices are even called "PADD"

but it looks like a rectangle with rounded to me. It is also described "Consisting of a large touchscreen display and minimalistic manual interface or control panel (generally only one or two buttons)"

Sounds like a pretty good description for a tablet (wether iOS or Android) to me.

Re: It's a good job the USPTO wasn't this stupid 100 years ago...

Re: Floored, I tell you

" the argument that it is only a name is not valid."

Let's imagine I come round your house for dinner and you serve, say, Goulash.

I enjoy the dinner and when I get home I try to remember the flavours, knock a few ingredients together and then gradually fine tune ingredients and method until I have a dish that tastes identical to yours.

if only Kim Dotcom set up in Belgium

The wording of this judgement somewhat suggests that if megaupload were hosted in Europe, they would not be responsible for content posted/shared by it's users. Does this mean we Europeans are governed by people with sense all of a sudden?